Adventures in New Recipes
I’ve been cooking dinner more than usual, lately. This is partly to save money (eating out a lot can add up), but also because I have a lighter schedule, so there’s a bit more time to shop for ingredients and make the dishes.
There have been 2 principally new sources for recipes: one is the H-Mart (the very nice Korean Supermarket) on Robson, which has all sorts of ingredients and even a few convenience foods (mixes, frozen food) that let me attempt a few unfamiliar Asian dishes. Yesterday I tried a Korean mix, that is essentially a flour and water pancake that you add vegetables and meat or seafood to. It turned out extremely well, but I didn’t know what sauce I should serve with it (it needed a little drizzle of something), so after checking a few sources (including the always helpful people at the Asian Foods stall at Granville Market), I couldn’t find any ‘traditional’ sauce for it. I ended up using ‘fruit sauce’, which is that tamarind-based sauce that you typically have on Tonkatsu, the wonderful fried chicken or pork cutlet that is Japan’s answer to Wiener schnitzel. We had the pancakes (wth a ton of vegetables and some Korean-style beef - marinated in ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil and rice wine vinegar) over rice and with stir-fried baby bok choy and shitake mushrooms on the side. I know that it was essentially a mishmash of Korean, Chinese and Japanese cuisines, but it seemed to turn out pretty well.
The second source of recipes has been a superb cooking show that we’ve been TiVO-ing from the Food Channel: French Food at Home, with Laura Calder. Laura’s recipes have been hitting it out of the park nearly every time. A month or so ago we tried some of her side dishes: a terrific baked grated potato cake (the russet potato shreds get tossed with cream, which seemed to have just enough fat to hold them together without sticking to the foil or getting greasy - the result is a light and crunchy potato pancake without frying!), and a bacon and brussel sprout leaf side dish that could even get people who dislike that vegetable to love it for the first time. A couple of days ago we tried her delicious cold swiss chard with toasted sesame seeds, sugar, soy sauce and sesame oil. Tonight, I made her Sautéed Chicken with fresh chopped rosemary and thyme and white wine. Once again, a good dish. Rarely have I had such a good hit rate with anybody’s recipes, much less a TV cook; Rachel Ray is fun, but with a few exceptions, her 30 Minute Meals are not always as tasty as they are fast. Jamie Oliver was the first Celebrity cook I ever watched regularly with a lot of gutsy Italian-style dishes, but the success rate with his recipes was kind of spotty.
With Granville Island’s public market within a short walk, access to lots of Asian foods, a good kitchen, and now a little extra time to procure and prepare, dinners have been a lot better than usual. Unfortunately, when I do find a new full-time job this extra time will go away, but it’s nice to enjoy it while I can, with a steadily growing repertoire of dishes.
5 Comments
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MJ Ankenman — June 6, 2007 @ 7:31 am
My mouth is watering. You are an inspiration. I like the idea of the chicken and fresh herbs….will have to try that. Any links to recipes?
West End Bound — June 6, 2007 @ 8:02 am
Jeez, David, they all sound delish!
When we get up there, we’ll have to have you come over and cater a gourmet meal for us!
As for the H-Mart on Robson: I went in there based on a review of their lunch counter/restaurant. Being so confused by the menu with no descriptions and no one particularly interested in assisting me, I left without ordering anything. The market does look like a cook’s delight, though.
ddrucker — June 6, 2007 @ 9:10 am
MJ - you can find all of them on the Food Channel’s French Food at Home site - the chicken recipe is at: http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=8291
As for the potato cakes, they are at: http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=8280
The bacon brussel sprouts one is:
http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=8372
The swiss chard is at:
http://www.foodtv.ca/recipes/recipedetails.aspx?dishid=607
(that last one is one that Pam found, and think she’s confused the source as it’s from another show, and not one of Laura Calder’s, as far as I can tell)
Bob, I know what you mean about H-Mart, and I have to say that the lack of instructions for foreigners (which is what we are when we go to places like these) is fairly universal. I find that a lot of store employees are more than happy to tell you what to get/eat, but it is usually up to you to ask them. It takes a fair amount of bravery, and nothing will be handed to you. Sometimes I get a little frustrated, and wish that I had a personal guide to come with me because I know I’m missing out on some of the more exotic fare. Last year I tried my first bit of jellyfish and was surprised to find it a lot like the seaweed salad that I often will get along with sushi. No one told me, and there is always the assumption that Westerners won’t like any of it, which is a shame.
I’m beginning to think that the answer is to take an Asian cooking class (or perhaps even a class for each of the main Asian cuisines, since Thai cooking is as different from Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese as German is from French and Italian!)
Also, as time goes by and these establishments become less insular, I suspect that some of them will start to cater to more than the traditional shoppers/diners. When I lived in Rochester, NY, I discovered a fantastic Vietnamese restaurant, and used to go there regularly and turned on a lot of friends at school to it. By the time I left that city, the restaurant had gradually changed so that at least half of their clientèle was from outside the Vietnamese community, and all of the menus had careful translations, the tables had tablecloths under glass tops (instead of their original checkered oilcloths), etc. Sometimes I wonder how much I had to do with their success, as I was frustrated near the end of my stay that I couldn’t get a table any more on some busy nights…
MJ Ankenman — June 6, 2007 @ 12:11 pm
Thanks for the links…. I like the idea of a cooking course. I think a course helps you get an idea of how to improvise etc.
WorldWideWaterCooler — June 6, 2007 @ 1:23 pm
[...] unlike fellow blogger and member of the ranks of the unemployed, Dave Drucker, I’m also spending a lot more of my time cooking at home, rather than going [...]